


With The Powers of Family and Love!

by QueenLawyer



Series: Uncle Emile and the Super Nephews [3]
Category: Cartoon Therapy (Web Series), Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: All sides sympathetic, Anxiety, Bullying, Gen, Panic Attacks, cartoon violence, physical violence, superhero au, they are children - Freeform, who let me do this i don't know how to write a cohesive story
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-08
Updated: 2021-01-27
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:34:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 21,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24613099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenLawyer/pseuds/QueenLawyer
Summary: Suddenly having guardianship for six kids is hard enough, especially when you never planned for children. But for Dr. Emile Picani it is even harder as these kids have superpowers!Or, a superhero au where the sides are all kids have superpowers and are under guardianship of their uncle, Dr. Emile Picani, who is trying his best. (Even if he doesn't know that any of his nephews have powers)
Relationships: Dr. Emile Picani & Everyone, Dr. Emile Picani/Sleep | Remy Sanders, Platonic DLAMPR
Series: Uncle Emile and the Super Nephews [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1554361
Comments: 28
Kudos: 70





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Wow it's been a real long time and I am so sorry. I've been busy writing for something for a different fandom, but I'm so so sorry that I took this long making the next part of this hopefully the next part won't be as long. For anyone new, welcome to the series! I sugggest you read the others in the series before this one, but I'm glad you're here! This is just a superhero au where I make all of the sides superpowered kids who are under the guardianship of their Uncle, Dr. Emile Picani! I hope you enjoy!
> 
> Also, this au was created before the most recent episode, and no I don't know what I going to do about Janus, but his name currently in the au is Declan or Dee.

Logan was in his lab that Uncle Emile gave him. And no he technically wasn’t breaking any of the rules that his uncle gave him. He never actually set an curfew on when he should return upstairs to his room. And he did tell his uncle that he would be down here. It just happens that it was a few hours ago and haven’t returned yet. And he did in fact have brought someone down with him. Virgil just happened to fall asleep due to some sounds that he chose to play a few hours ago, that was likely to get his brother to fall asleep faster. Virgil was often calmed down by the sounds of storms, so by playing that he would be able to concentrate without his brother distracting him from his work. Virgil kept soundly in a nook that Logan created for optimal sleep.

The front desk did watch him from the cameras that were installed, he was not breaking that rule. They just happened to be not watching the current version of Logan but instead a long loop that he created. So he was not breaking that rule either. And obviously the final rule could not have been broken by him. 

So, what exactly was the justification for him feeling quite so off right now?

There was nothing that he could think of that could give him a reason to feel so wrong right now. If only he was able to understand feelings as well as Paton could. He may have incredibly increased intelligence, however there does not seem to be any relation with his increased intelligence and understanding emotional intelligence. But he didn’t particularly feel like going into “feelings town” with his brother right now, so he kept working in his lab instead. He was always a strong proponent of getting the correct amount of sleep every night, but his work was important to him as well. It was a much more productive- _beep beep beep_.

And of course that’s when Patton has to come down here. Logan looked to his surveillance screen to see both Patton and Uncle Emile heading down in the elevator. Ah, the fourth rule. His Uncle can come and check on him any time. Logan groaned at his work being cut off, but he flipped a switch that hid away all of his current experiments, and replaced it with one of his experiments that was a much more inconspicuous experiment, a small robot that he has worked on when he was younger, and has been recently making some changes lately to make it more powerful. He made himself look busy by tinkering with the robot, as Patton and Uncle Emile came in.

“Logan, Virgil are you still down here?”

“Hello Uncle Emile, yes I am still working here. Is there a problem?” Logan knew the problem was that he should have returned a long time ago, at the very least when Virgil fell asleep, but figured that acting ignorant was most likely in his best interest.

Emile scratched the back of his neck, looking a little sheepish, as Patton went around to wake up Virgil. “I’m really sorry, I should have checked on you earlier. I got caught up in the work that I was doing, and time passed faster than I realized. But that is a reason, and not an excuse, so I’m sorry Logan. Would you be able to wrap all of this up soon, and head back upstairs with me?”

Logan looked at his robot. He really didn’t have a lot of pressing matters to accomplish at the moment. But he felt strongly that he did not want to go upstairs. But he supposed that he didn’t really have a choice. “Yes I’ll come back up with you.” He put down his gear to look at Patton, who had picked Virgil up, still asleep, in his arms. Uncle Emile raised a surprised eyebrow at his surprising strength, but seemed to dismiss it, and everyone headed into the elevator.

As they arrived back in their apartment, Emile headed into his room, letting the boys head to their rooms. “Logan,” Patton’s voice stopped him as he was about to head into his room. “You’re not going to be able to avoid the future by working yourself to death, Lo. Monday will get here anyway.”

Logan didn’t even spare Patton a glance, just told him goodnight and headed into his room. Patton sighed and went into his and Virgil’s room, laying Virgil softly on his bed.

* * *

The next morning, Logan and Roman were on patrol, looking for any disturbances in the city. But it seemed pretty quiet, fortunately for Logan and unfortunately for Roman. Unfortunately for Roman, because come on, it was _boring_! He just wanted to fight someone! 

But it was fortunately for Logan, because Roman was fairly certain his littlest bro was falling asleep where he was standing. Roman waved his hand over his face, “Hey, Sleeping Nerdy! You in there?”

Logan blinked a few times, and then he batted Roman’s hand away. “I am _fine_ , Roman. Only if you would stop being such an imbecilic nuisance.”

“Oh, ouch there! Is someone cranky that he didn’t get enough sleep?” Roman smirked as he asked this, getting even more on Logan’s nerves. 

“Shut up, Roman. I still get more sleep than you typically get.”

“I also don’t get up at six in the morning.” 

“Building a circadian rhythm is important to your physical health and that includes waking up at the same time every morning. Not just whenever I feel like it, like you.” 

Roman made a dramatic gesture with his arms and declared, “A prince needs his beauty sleep!” 

Logan raised an eyebrow, “You do know that you are not actually royalty. I know grip on reality is particularly pathetic, but it is important to me that you know at the very least that you are not royalty.”

“Uh-huh.” 

“...That is not an affirmative. Roman, I swear-“

“Hey what’s that?” Roman pointed over the horizon, to a small black dot that seemed to be heading in their general direction. Logan pressed the side of his visor, and his tech showed him a clearer vision of who it was. It was a person dressed in all black, with a mask over their face, but it clearly showed his face. He had a long cape, trailing behind as he flew around on… something. He was still a decent distance away though, but it was hard to pick anything out really.

“Logan can you do any of your-”

“On it,” Logan reached up to his visor and pressed the side. Instantly, the visor flashed and lit up, connecting with his brain waves. He had discovered that his powers weren’t just limited to his telekinesis and increased intelligence. His brain waves were at an increased strength, that allowed him to have very limited control of technology. It wasn’t as if he had complete control of it, or that it could talk to him, _that_ would be ridiculous. But more as if he could nudge it in the direction that he wanted. 

He guided his visor into zooming into the person, getting a more clear picture of the man. He didn’t recognize him from any of the people they have fought before, but something much more interesting caught his attention. There was a board that he was riding on, that looked much more high-tech than anything that he had ever seen before. It was allowing him to fly around gracefully, and he needed to know how it worked. If he could just get his hands on it, he could figure out how it worked, and reverse engineer it! He needed to get that board.

“... Uh, Logan. Earth to Space Cadet.” Logan’s vision was interrupted yet again by Roman waving his hand in front of his face. “You in there? Do you recognize him?”

Logan rolled his eyes, “No, he is not anyone that I am currently able to recognize. I would be able to check a few databases in the apartment. But he is riding some sort of a board and I would like to-”

Then suddenly there was a large sound of shattering glass, and the brothers snapped their heads up. Now the man was shattering the widows of one of the skyscrapers, laughing maniacally. He was relishing in all of the destruction that he was causing. After wrecking the widows on one floor of the building, he flew over to another skyscraper and wrecked even more windows. He didn’t even seem to have a plan, just causing rampant destruction.

“Roman, we have to- and he’s already gone. Why did I expect anything else.” Roman had conjured a grappling hook, and was flying towards the roof of the skyscrapers. In a flash, he was jumping from the roofs of the scrappers, already much farther ahead of him. Logan sighed and started running after him, down the streets. Well, he’ll at least be able to see the tech closer. 

He had just gotten close to the man, when he heard Roman yell, “You fiend!” and he jumped at him from the roof, and they grappled in the sky. Logan felt his heart pound, as he was practically helpless to do nothing but watch. As they fought, the man was starting to lose control of his machine, and he dropped down a few levels. But they were still a few stories high when they leveled out again. Roman summoned a rose vine, and tried to restrain him. It would have been a good move, if not for it distracting him just long enough for the villian to get a good grip on him. He smiled, a cruel, sadistic thing. And then electricity was flowing through Roman, and he screamed. 

He was helpless up there, and Logan was all alone. He needed to do something, anything! He looked around for anything that could help. He spotted a manhole cover a little bit away. He’s never really moved something that large before, but he has to try. He focused his attention onto the metal. It shook with Logan’s effort, but it wasn’t enough! With a final push he threw it up towards the villain hurting his brother.

It flew up and collided with the head and the villian dropped Roman. Logan ran forward as if to catch Roman, but Logan isn’t exactly the most coordinated personon in the world. So when he went to catch Roman, he fell on top of Logan in a pile. Roman groaned as he went to stand up.

“Ow, that’s going to hurt. Ugh…”

“Roman, we have to go!” Logan grabbed his wrist and hurried down a few alley ways. His vision was wavering in and out, and he felt lightheaded. Eventually, he pulled them far enough away. He breathed heavily as he rested against a wall.

“Logan, we have to go back! He’s going to get away!” Roman was yelling at him, getting angier. “We’re the heroes here! How can we be the heroes if we run away!”

Logan could tell he was continuing to yell at him, but he wasn’t catching his words, they were all blending together. The last thing he heard was an infuriated “Well Logan!” Before his eyes rolled back into his skull and he passed out.

* * *

Roman brought Logan back to their home unconscious. He paused before opening the door. He doesn’t think that Emile is home yet, so he doesn’t have to worry about that, thank the stars. But his brothers are going to be upset, and he didn’t know if he could deal with that. Because then they want to know what happened, how could he let this happen, and how he… how he failed. 

Looking down at an unconscious Logan however, well he doesn’t really have much of a choice. He sighed and opened the door.

He opened it to Virgil pacing the entryway. “Logan!” He ran over and picked up Logan in his arms. “Roman, what happened? What did you do?” 

“I didn’t do anything! It wasn’t my fault he decided to faint!” Roman angrily shouted back at him.

“He didn’t decide to-” Virgil shouted back until collecting himself again. “Whatever, it’s not important. Just change and get Patton alright.” With that Virgil left towards Logan and Declan’s room, leaving Roman alone.

Roman looked down to see that he was still in super-outfit. Huh, he forgot about that. Patton first though. He came to Virgil and Patton’s room, which was opened but he knocked anyways. 

“Yeah kiddo?” Patton turned around to see Roman and let out a startling gasp. “Roman!” He quickly flew over to the doorway and held Roman’s face in his hands.

“Roman you’re hurt! What happened?”

Roman was surprised to hear the concern in Patton’s voice. “What, no I’m fine Patton. But Lo-”

“Look at yourself Ro! You’re burned!” He placed his hand on a burn from the electricity on his arm. 

“Oh, that’s not important right now, Logan needs-”

“Let’s get you bandaged up first, alright Roman.” He gently led Roman to Patton’s bed. “Now, why don’t you tell me what all happened.”

* * *

Logan awoke to the sounds of his brothers talking about something. He was just barely starting to make out the words.

“So there's a new villian out there. So what if he’s got some fancy gizmos. We can take him!”

“Roman he kicked your butt. There’s no telling what he’s capable of. We don’t have a chance.”

“No, don’t speak like that! We just have to work together as a team! I believe in us!”

“I don’t.”

“Screw that! We just need to hammer his skull until his brain comes out!”

“No, we aren’t going to murder him Remus.”

“Stop messing around! We’re never going to 

Logan figured that he should probably show that he’s not asleep. He sat up in his bed.

“Logan!” His brothers swarmed around him. “All you alright? What happened? How are you feeling?”

Logan waved away all their worries. “I am fine as of now. It is more important is for me to analyze the battle to see if there are any tactical ways that would lead to taking him down, or figure out who this new person could be. Now if you excuse me-”

“What, Logan! No you need rest!” Patton was looking at him very concerned. “Please Logan you got hurt, whatever that man did to you, it will be alright. Just get some rest-”

“I am _fine_ Patton. Don’t waste your time when there are more pressing matters to deal with.” 

“More pressing matters!” Virgil got up in his face, and his shadow grew, stretching throughout the room. “You could have died! Do you realize how worried I was!”

“Virgil, you are magnifying this event to be greater than what it is. It was hardly life-threatening.”

“Then, what happened Logan?” Roman spoke up. “You just fainted, it had to be caused by something.”

“Nothing that I can’t handle.”

“You’re not taking care of yourself.” Dee hadn’t said anything up until now. Just sitting on his own bed, thinking deeply. “You’re not sleeping, don’t think that I haven’t noticed. You may have been fine this time, but you are going to get yourself killed if you don’t take care of yourself!” Dee was getting angrier as he talked, and the serpent features started to appear. His left eye became slitted and a couple scales appeared around the eye. “Just talk to us! Instead of hiding down in your little cave like the rest of us don’t matter!”

At this moment, the handle of the door turned, and Uncle Emile walked in the room. “Oh, there you boys are! In a few minutes I want to take you shopping for school supplies!”

* * *

Emile tapped the wheel as he drove the boys to the store. There was something off with the kids. They seem tense, well more tense that usual. He’s been a therapist for a while now, he’s able to tell when someone is putting on a front. But bringing it up here isn’t going to help anyone. Hopefully things will calm down once they start shopping. 

He pulled into the parking spot, and unlocked the car. The kids hurried out of the car, but he stayed in for a moment. He took a couple of deep breaths, put on a bright smile, and headed out of the car, and hereded the family inside. 

“Alright, I have the list here of things you boys need.” He pulled a list out of his pocket. “First everyone needs new folders and notebooks, and then we need to get new backpacks for… and they’re gone.” He looked to see the boys having scattered to somewhere in the store. He thought about making an announcement for missing kids, and as funny that would be the kids might not forgive him, and he’s not quite that desperate yet. He grabbed a cart and started roaming through the store.

He wandered down the aisles looking for the kids, before he started to hear Remus talking. “Please you don’t understand, I need it! If I don’t get it I will literally die. Poison will sweep into my lungs and I’ll die!”

“Oh but it’s so _ugly_.”

“Ugh, why am I here again?”

Emile rolled his cart to where Remus, Roman, and Virgil were looking at lunch boxes. “Boys! You shocked me more than Static Shock by wandering off like that!”

The twins both looked completely unabashed but Virgil looked at least a little ashamed. “Sorry, Uncle Emile.”

He smiled at his nephew. “It’s no problem, just give me a heads up next time,” he reassured. “What’s going on here?”

“Remus wants an abomination.” Roman stated, deadpan.

“Excuse me, it is a work of art, greater than the Mona Lisa, more magnificent than Starry Nights, more-”

“Remus wants the emoji lunchbox,” Virgil interrupted, nodding to the lunch box in question. It sure was interesting alright. The lunch box featured the poop emoji square in the middle of it, with the background of a rainbow flag.

“Well, if you really want it, I don’t see why not.” Remus then let out a cheer and Roman fell dramatically to the floor with a groan. He pulled the lunch box down into his cart. “You boys can keep looking around at things for now, do you know where the others are?”

Virgil looked up from his phone where he was ignoring the conversation about the poop lunch box. “I think the others went to look at pencils and stuff?”  
“Thanks kiddo! I’ll be back soon, pick out something nice!” 

He moved on and then spotted Patton and Dee looking at pencil cases. Patton noticed him and waved him over. “Uncle Emile!”

“There you kids are! Lost you for a bit there!”

“Oh, sorry Uncle Emile. But look!” Patton turned around and grabbed a pencil case. “Look it's a dog! Have you ever seen anything more perfect! It has ears, little floppy ears!” He hugged it close. “I love him.”

“Oh cute! It’s like a little Scooby-Doo!” Patton beamed at him, and then Emile turned to Declan. “What about you Dee. Did you find anything you like.”

Dee shyly brought out a pencil case from behind his back. It was a fairly simple case, but made to look as if it was made out of snakeskin. “It feels nice, I really like it. Plus snakes are cool.”

“If you like it, that’s good enough for me! Throw it in the cart! Do you two know where Logan is, I haven’t been able to find him.”   
Patton put in his pencil pouch and then frowned. “He was right here, when did he leave?”

Dee scowled and looked down at his shoes. “Who cares what he does.”

“Declan!” Patton gasped, shocked. “You can’t mean that!”

“What? It’s not like he cares enough to just talk to us. But no, he has to go and hide his feelings from us. We're supposed to be family, but you wouldn’t tell that from how he acts about us.” He crossed his arms and glared at the ground.

“Dee, that’s not fair! Lo is just dealing with a lot right now! You know he cares about us! He might have some trouble talking to us sometimes about his feelings, but don’t imply he doesn’t care!”

Dee placed his hands on Patton’s which had been curled into fists. They almost seemed to be glowing a strange, blue color.

Huh, weird.

“Ok, Pat, ok.” Dee said, as if he is trying to placate Patton. “I don’t mean it, I’m just worried.” Patton smiled at him, and seemed to be fine.”  
It didn’t feel like it was quite his place for Picani to speak up.The boys were already so closely knit together, he felt like an intruder half the time. But he probably should speak up. “Alright,” Patton jumped as soon as he started talking, having forgotten his uncle was standing there. “I’m going to look for Logan.”

“You don’t have to!” Patton said. “I’ll go!”

Emile gave him a smile and gave him the cart. “Nah, I got it. You both need to look around. Gotta blast!”

With that Emile left to look for Logan. He figured that Logan was probably in the area, if he had recently left Patton and Declan’s company. Emile wandered for a little while, but not for too long when he spotted Logan. He was crouched down in a fetal position, breathing heavily, sitting by a pile of cases of pens that had fallen by the floor. If Emile was less preoccupied by the state of his nephew, he might have noticed that the pens did seem to not be laying on the ground, but instead were floating. 

He rushed over to his nephew. He knelt in front of him, careful not to touch him without his permission. “Logan, I’m going to take some deep breaths. Could you join me?” Logan didn’t respond to him, but Emile started to take deep breaths. After a few moments of him breathing, Logan joined him. After a few moments of the two of them breathing together, Logan calmed down enough not to be breathing so heavily. Logan sat up from his position on the floor and leaned against a shelf. Emile sat next to him, careful to give him some space.

“Do you want to talk about what caused this?” Emile asked.

Logan put his head between his legs. “Not really.”

“Studies have shown that talking to someone that you trust can make you feel better about whatever anxieties you may have.”  
Logan brought his head up, “Really?”

“Well sure! Forcing out your problems when you do not want to share them doesn’t really work, but telling someone you trust can not only help your emotional state, but your physical one as well. It doesn’t have to be me, but I would suggest being able to talk to someone that you do trust.”

“No, no I do trust you. I know it hasn’t been quite that long since we’ve been living together, butI do trust you.” Logan took a deep breath. “It’s school.”

Emile blinked a few times. “Well, I can’t say I expected that. What about school makes you feel this way.”

“I know, I know, I love learning! There is no reason to feel this way!”

“Now, I don’t think that is real fair to yourself. Just because there are aspects that appeal to you, it does not disqualify any of your more negative feelings about school.”

Logan breathed out, “I suppose, it’s just in my old school, I just couldn’t make any friends, I don’t know what I’m doing wrong about it. I’m fine when I’m around my brothers, but it just feel so lonely at school. And I try, I try so hard, but I never seem to be good enough. And the teachers I had before aren’t exactly the most understanding.”

“I’m sorry Logan,” Emile said. “You are an amazing kid, so brilliant and so passionate. You deserve to be in a situation at school where you are free to be yourself. There is only so much that I am willing to do, but I will do whatever I can to help you. If your teacher ends up being unsupportive of you, I need for you to talk to me. Because there are other options that are available to you, and we can work something out.”

“That’s all well and good, but you can’t protect me from everything. There is only so much that you could possibly do.”

“That’s true Logan. As much as I wish, there is only so much that I will be able to do. But Logan, I have all the faith in the world in you. You’re the most passionate, brilliant, driven kid, no person, I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. You’re filled with such greatness, I can see it in how much you care, the way you glow when you talk about what you are passionate about. To paraphrase an underrated classic, ‘You’re going to rattle the stars one day. I just hope I’m there to catch the light from your sails.’” 

Then Emile gave Logan a look that was so full of honesty and full of love for his nephew, that shocked Logan to his core. To see such clear emotion and love directed towards him, the words were like an arrow into his chest. He couldn’t stop the emotions that he often tried to keep in check from flowing out. Logan hugged him and cried, sobbing into his shirt. Emile comforted him silently, rubbed his back, and waited patiently for Logan.

Eventually Logan spoke again. “I apologize for that. It is uncharacteristic for me to act in such a manner.”

“No worries, for the rest of your days!” Logan leaned his head tiredly on Emile as he talked. “Now I do need to ask about this, Dee mentioned something about you not taking care of yourself?”

“It’s dumb,” Logan mumbled, almost too quite to hear. 

“Why don’t you tell me anyways.”

“This is so illogical.” He mumbled. “I just thought, if I didn’t sleep, if I kept busy, then maybe then the next day wouldn’t come. Which doesn’t even make any sense! Twenty-four hours are still going to pass, all that will happen is that my Circadian-Rhythm will be disturbed!”

“Whether or not it is illogical doesn’t change the validity of your feelings. But you are right as in these actions do hurt not only your mental health but your physical health as well. But there are healthier actions that we can take when feelings such as these come up.”

Logan nodded at this and then tried to cover up a yawn. Emile chuckled and handed him the keys to the car. 

“Here, you’re already exhausted. Go to the car, I’ll get the rest of your brothers, check what they have so far, and then we can go home and let you rest.” Emile smiled at Logan and stood up, and went to find him brothers. Logan looked after him with an incredibly fond before he got up and left for the car. 

* * *

When they got home his brothers hovered around him, but Uncle Emile herded them away. Exhaustion seeped through his bones, and as soon as his head hit the pillow he was asleep. Logan awoke much later, checking his phone, it was past dinner. His room still was empty, and then his door opened with Dee holding some food. Dee saw that he was awake, and hurried and sat on his bed. 

“Here,” Dee said, handing him the plate of food. “This is for you.”

Logan grabbed the plate, and started eating the food. Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew that he should not be eating on the bed, but he couldn’t find it in himself to care. He ate silently for a while, the only sound being the fork scraping against the plate. Eventually worked himself up to speaking. He took a deep breath and said, “I’m sorry.”

“You’re sorry!” Dee leaned away from him, shocked. “Why are you sorry, I’m the one who should be sorry!”

“Just as you said, I should have talked to you before. It was silly to do otherwise.”

“I shouldn't have said that, I was just mad.”

“Yeah, mad at me.”

“No not mad at you just,” Dee waved his hands in the air as if trying to find the right words. “Mad that you got hurt and I couldn’t help you. That I saw you not taking care of yourself and did nothing.”

“I probably wouldn’t have listened, to be perfectly fair.” A smirk came to his face. “I am incredibly stubborn.”

Dee smiled at this, but then quickly it quickly vanished. “It was just so unlike you to act like that! You are always good at going to sleep on time, always making sure the rest of us take care of yourselves.”

“Sorry.”

Dee punched him, affectionately. “Stop that, dumbass.”

Logan sighed, “I didn’t mean for things to get so out of hand. I was fine, and then suddenly I wasn’t. It was like my feet were swept out from under-” His voice cut off, his mind working a million miles a minute.

“What? What’s wrong now?

“I think I figured out how to beat him. The-the new villain. I’ve got to work on something!” Dee gave him a glare and Logan gave him a bashful smile. “Um, after a good night's sleep.”

* * *

Logan held his device in his hand, turning it over. Things did not go over quite as well last time they fought the villain, but things would be better this time. This time he’s here with all of his brothers and this time they got a plan.

The fight had already started, and the plan was starting. Crashes and manic laughter followed as this new villain flew through the streets on his board. Watching him was something unsettling. The way he laughed, and flew into buildings, with no concern of you they might hurt. Roman is wrong about a lot of things, but one thing he is not wrong about is this person has to be stopped.

But his brothers were behind it. Patton flew through the skies catching his attention and drawing his fire, and leading him to where Logan was waiting. Remus was providing Patton with support as he would distract the villain with blows when he got too close to Patton. Virgil and Roman were on civilian duty, Roman leading the people away as Virgil stretched his shadows to catch any debris. Dee was waiting, not taking any actions, but ready as backup. Even if they were fine now, he would be ready to help. 

Patton shot him with a blast from his hands, then swooped low, towards Logan. The villain screamed in rage and followed him. He was close enough for Logan to hear what he was screaming, “You think you can beat me! I’m going to destroy you! Tear you limb from limb and have your little friends here watch!” 

Fear flashed across Patton’s face and he fell down to the ground. But it didn’t matter as he was close enough. Patton’s hands flickered weakly, and the villian flew down close with a smirk on his face.

Then Logan pushed his device with his powers, and it flew off towards the hoverboard and connected with it, lashing on. A light flashed, red, red, then light blue. Only Logan knew what it was truly doing, how it was working through the system of the board. I hacked through the board, and Logan could see something new on his visor. The board no longer was the villain’s. 

It was Logan’s.

The villain stepped on the boards, trying to make it work. Logan pulled up a screen and had it lowered to the ground. Shadows wrapped around him and trapped him. 

“It’s over,” Patton said. “We aren’t going to let you hurt anymore innocent people.”

“The villains eyes flicked to the brothers, looking through them, looking for a way out, and coming up short, and his breathing coming up short in a panic, “I-I didn’t- it’s not-”

Then suddenly, all power went out for as far as they could see. Patton quickly lit the area with his powers. “Is everyone alright?”

Everyone confirmed that they were fine, but something was still wrong. It was Dee that spoke up, “Wait where did he go?”

To everyone’s shock the villain was gone.

“Wait, where is he?” Virgil’s voice bordered on panic. “What happened to him, I had him!”

“That fiend!” Roman yelled, “He escaped!”

“Well worry about that later,” Patton decided. “This is still a victory! We now know how to beat him! All thanks to Logan! Come here!” He wrapped Logan in a hug.

“Ugh, Patton, you’re smothering me! Let go!” But secretly, surrounded by his family who were proud and loved him…

He wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh hey it hasn't been six months this time! Here's the next chapter! I don't like this chapter quite as much as the previous chapter but I hope everyone enjoys it! Thank you for reading!

Patton tried to be a good kid, he tried so hard to be an honest person, to be a good nephew and help out Uncle Emile, and to be there for his brothers. So it might surprise people if they found out that Patton was sneaking out of the apartment. 

But he had a good reason! Everyone at home was so stressed lately! Not that Patton blamed them in the slightest, with school coming up! He can’t really blame his brothers for being nervous! New school, new teachers, new area. Ok so maybe the old school wasn’t exactly the best either, so it will probably be better, but there were still plenty of reasons to worry. Well, not for Patton of course he’s all fine and dandy, but of course his brothers were worried. So Patton needed to do what he could- hence the sneaking out.

After all, Patton had to do his part to help everyone! So if he spent a little extra time doing their superhero gig, his brothers can have one less thing to worry about. It’s a great plan, the superhero stuff still gets done, and his brothers don’t get bothered in the slightest. He’d already convinced Remus and Logan that he’d cover their shift. He may have implied that he wouldn’t do it alone, but it really isn’t that big of a deal to go it alone. All he has to do is sneak out and hope he didn’t wake Virgil. 

He placed his suit in a bag as quietly as he could. There was no way he could put the whole uniform without waking Virgil, he was the world's lightest sleeper. He grabbed the bag and flipped it over his shoulder then slowly opened up the window. Just as he finished opening the winning, it gave a long creek. Patton’s head snapped to Virgil’s bed. He turned in his sleep and his face twitched, but mercifully he stayed asleep. Patton gave a deep sigh and then jumped out the window.

He flew out over the night sky, looking at the towering skyscrapers as he flew up, up, and up towards the sky. There were few feelings that could compare to flying, feeling the wind in his hair, soaring above the world without a care in the world. He smiled and flew up towards the moon.

He did need to get moving and change. He scanned around, and found a tall skyscraper that the roof wasn’t in view of anyone else and changed into his outfit there. Patton had never done this before, so there was a sort of vulnerability to changing like this as if just anyone could see him, just look and spot and figure out who him and his brothers are. But in a few moments he had changed into his suit, and shot back into the sky.

Luckily for him, there didn’t seem to really be any problems tonight. There was a burglary that he spotted, but he handled that pretty quickly. He guessed there wasn’t really any reason to worry.

So of course then, a loud crash sounded. 

Patton, without another thought, raced towards the sound. He spotted the villain from before, that hurt Logan and Roman. It looked like he was racing out of some sort of museum, holding a large gem before putting it in his bag. He went to fly off on his board, but Patton flew back up to stop him.

“Well hey there kiddo! That’s an awfully pretty gem you got there, but I’m gonna suggest you put it back.I doubt the museum there takes that big old rock for  _ granite _ .” 

Patton was quite proud of that pun, but the villain didn’t seem to appreciate it very much. “You again! Can’t you bastards leave me alone for five minutes!”  
“I can’t do that,” Patton said. “I won’t let just hurt people, like you always do.”

He growled and his technology sparked to life, electricity dancing at his fingertips. Patton responded in turn, his hands glowing with power. Patton wasn’t going to make the first move, but he would be ready.

The villain launched himself at Patton, but he dodged quickly out of the way, then sent his starblasts after the villain. He managed to dodge a few of them, but Patton got a lucky shot, and he went plummeting down toward the ground.

Without a second thought, Patton took off after him, catching him just before he could get hurt. He may be a bad guy, but Patton just couldn’t let him get hurt like that. Then he smiled and gripped tight to Patton’s forearm. His gauntlets lit up as he channeled electricity up towards Patton, oh this was going to be a shock.

But then a glowing red grappling hook wrapped around the villain's arm. His arm was yanked backwards and Patton was out of danger. But he wasn’t thinking anything about that, when he saw where there hook came from. Following the rope, his eyes tracked to see who was holding it, and gripping tight to the rope was his little brother Roman gripping tight with a large smirk.

“What are you doing here?” Patton shouted as he stormed towards his brother. “ You’re supposed to be at home!”   


“What? I just saved your skin so you are welcome, by the way.”

“I had it handled, there was no reason to endanger yourself!” Patton was getting angier, and angier as they kept arguing. 

“Are you kidding me? I could say the exact same thing about you! You snuck out just the same as me!”   


“You did nothing but make yourself a target! Why are you even here?”

“What am I doing here? I’m not the person that lied to Remus and then snuck out!”   


“I was protecting you!” Patton yelled at Roman.

“Ugh, whatever! Let’s just… oh no. Where is he?”

“Wait what?” Patton felt his anger slide off of him, as he quickly looked around for the villain. But the place was completely abandoned, no one in sight. “He must have  left while we fought.”   


Roman took a deep breath, but didn’t look at Patton or say anything. 

The thought _ I messed up _ flashed through Patton’s head. He looked down at Roman and felt guilty. “Well we can look around and look around for him.”

They started walking around before Patton broke. “I’m sorry Roman, I’m just trying to help, but that’s no excuse for yelling at you like that.”

“It’s ok Pat.” Roman said, taking Patton’s hand. “I know you're just stressed about school.”

“What nooo, I’m not stressed I got it all handled. I just want to make sure you boys are going to be ok, with school and all. So why are you all up?”   


“Oh, I just wanted to be able to help you out! 

Roman just gave the brightest smile up and just warmed Patton’s heart. “You are a really good kid, you know.” 

“Ugh, I’m not a little kid any more Pat!”

Patton squished Roman in a hug. “Oh, you’ll always be my little kiddo!”

“Ugh! Gross, Pat!” He fought lightly against the hug, but was smiling the entire time. “Wait, wait, wait. Is that the  _ sun _ !”

“Oh. Oh, that’s bad.” Patton let Roman go to look at the sunrise. “We should probably get back, huh. Want a lift?” Within a few moments, they were back flying through the sky.

* * *

Patton and Roman slipped through the window, in Patton’s room. Only to see Virgil sitting up on his bed. “Hey.” Virgil said. “You’re late.”

“I’m just gonna… go.” Roman mumbled then slipped out of the room. “Um, bye.”

The door closed, and Patton was left in the room with a vexed Virgil. “Hi, there Virge. How… how long have you been awake?”

“A while.”

“Oh, well I was just-”

“You were just what Patton!” Vigil yelled, infuriated. “Just sneaking out without telling anyone! Taking a second shift of the day! Working yourself to death again! Again Patton! Don’t you realize how terrified I was when I woke up and you were just gone!”

“Virgil- I didn’t mean to.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Virgil said, turning around in his bed. “You should put on some pjs, you’re supposed to wake up soon.”

Patton reached out a hand towards Virgil, wanting to do something, anything, to comfort his brother. But he didn’t know of anything he could possibly say that would bring them any sort of comfort. So in the end, he dropped his hand, put on his pjs, and went to bed.

* * *

Remy had arrived at the apartment, just as Emile had barely enough time to send him frazzled thank yous and what was probably a reference to a cartoon he’s never seen before running off again to the office. Remy was left standing in the doorway, eventually a fond smile falling onto his face. Em certainly was one of a kind, wasn’t he. Hopefully the clients realized just how lucky they were.

“Why is your face doing that?”

Remy let out a little shout and looked down to see Logan staring creepily back up at him. “Jeeze, kid you scared the shit out of me! Wait I’m probably not supposed to curse. Eh, it’s too late anyways. What are you doing up?”

“It’s my uncle isn’t it. That’s why your face looked all…” Logan trailed off and just gestured to Remy’s face.

“What exactly is that supposed to mean.”   


“All gross and in love.” At this Logan’s expression changed into one of slight disgust

Remy gave a good laugh at that. “Logan, Lo, Lo, Lo. We are just friends, that care for eachother very deeply, alright? We gucci?”

“I don’t know what that means but I decided that I hate that.”

“I’ll take it. So why are you up? You aren't staying up all night still, are you?”

Logan blushed and looked down at the ground. “Uncle Emile told you about that?”

“Yup,” Remy said, popping the P.

“No, I’m working on that. I don’t think Dee is going to let me any time soon. I usually attempt to rise at six am.”

“Ugh, that sounds absolutely awful.”

Logan sighed through his nose, annoyed. “No, it is not. Do you want me to wake everyone else up?”

Remy checked his phone. “Nah, It’s still kinda early and it’s you kids last day of freedom. Give them a few moments, k?” 

Logan nodded, then grabbed a book he had left on the couch when Remy came in and continued reading it, while Remy sat on his phone scrolling through his twitter feed. Eventually some of the kids started waking up. Dee came out next, blinked surprisingly at Remy suddenly being there, but then just sat down next to Logan. After a while Remus came out as well. Not that Remy saw Remus came out, just suddenly felt a weight jump on top of him, leaving Remy short of breath. He rapid fire asked a bunch of random questions, but eventually got bored and left him alone. After that Virgil came out, he glared at everyone in sight but didn’t say anything.

But Roman and Patton stayed in their rooms. Remy waited a while, but figured by ten-thirty that he should probably check on them. He first went to the twins room and knocked on the door, but he didn’t hear anything. He slowly opened the door to see Roman collapsed on the top of his bed, without even removing the covers. Roman’s bed was surrounded by the fluffiest pillows and he was clutching a dragon plush, and was softly snoring. And as cute as the whole thing was, he probably should wake the kid up.

He shook Roman’s shoulder, Roman turned over and squinted at Remy. But he must have realized it was Remy and not one of his brothers, eyes comically widening and covering his head with one of his massive pillows.

“No, I’m not ready yet! You can’t see me!”

Remy gave a laugh at Roman. “Maybe then someone shouldn’t have slept to ten-thirty then. I'll give you some time, but get dressed soon kid!”

Remy left the room, and headed to Patton’s room next. He knocked but again there was no response again. Remy entered the room to still see Patton sleeping, but this time he noticed something. Even while sleeping Patton just looked completely and utterly exhausted. These poor kids are just so stressed, with suddenly moving in with Emile, with changing schools, and those power things the kids have are probably super fucking wild.

But still Remy shook Patton’s shoulder to wake him up. Patton immediately shot forward in his bed, gasping for breath and looking around wildly. It was as if he was looking around for someone who would hurt him.

“Whoa, whoa, it’s just me Patton.” Remy tried to calm Patton down.

Patton’s eyes latched onto Remy, almost in shock. He breathed heavy for a moment, but then managed to calm down. Patton gave out a nervous laugh. “Oh, jeeze, you must have really shocked me there!”   


It was clearly meant to placate Remy, but it did anything but. “I didn’t mean to scare you, are you alright?”   


“Oh, don’t worry about me there! What are you doing here? I didn’t expect to see you here first thing in the morning!”

Remy quirked an eyebrow at Patton, “If by first thing in the morning you mean ten-thirty, then sure. Your uncle gave an emergency call saying he needed me to watch you kids while he deals with some work stuff.”

“It’s ten-thirty!” Patton grabbed his phone off of his night table, and his eyes widened when he saw the time. “Oh, jeeze, I didn’t think it was that late, I must have forgot to-”

Patton was interrupted when his face morphed into a yawn. Remy chuckled, “Why don’t I give you a few moments to get dressed, and then you can join your brothers.” 

He left and in a few moments Patton came out with his brothers. He let them hang out for a while, but he was getting so bored! “Ugh, don’t you kids do anything!’

The kids looked at him, surprised. “Reading is something.” Logan said.

“Yeah, a  _ boring _ thing. Come on, let’s go to my bakery, at least it's something different for you kids.” 

“The only vehicle you own is a motorcycle,” Dee said, deadpan.

“Hell yeah!” shouted Remus.

“Remus,” Logan said, “There is no way that all of us could possibly fit on a motorcycle.”   


“We could if you all weren't such  _ cowards _ .”

“Nah, we can just walk there. It’s not too far.”

“Then why do you always take your bike?” Roman asked.

“And why do you always take so long to get here?” Dee asked, much more dryly. 

“I get lost easily. Also my bike is cool.”

“You get lost? But you’ve lived here your entire life? How could you still continue to get lost in a city that you never left?” Logan asked.

“Skill,” Remy said. “Come on, let’s go. Move your little child buts out the door, and let’s get moving!” 

They left and actually made it to the bakery with decent timing. That may be because Logan demanded to be in charge of directions when they stepped outside and Remy looked around like he couldn’t remember if he should go right or left first. The bakery was a fairly small place, but it looked incredibly warm and inviting. The sign on top declared it as The Cakewalk, a name that made Patton burst into giggles and for Virgil to subtly laugh in his hand. 

They walked into the bakery, and it seemed to be just as warm as it was from the outside. The place was bathed in a warm light, making the place feel warm and friendly. There were several sets of tables with customers chatting, the walls were filled with a bunch of cute pictures, and the front was lined with display cases filled with the most mouth-watering pastries imaginable. But what really made this place was the smell. Heavenly scents of the bread baking, the faint smell of chocolate in the air, it was completely intoxicating. 

“All right, stop standing in the doorway, come on in.” Remy herded the kids up towards the front where all of the treats were. “Everyone gets one, alright? On me.”

The kids all rushed to the display case, eagerly looking at the pastries. But Remy noticed certain kids didn’t seem to be not quite as excited. Basically Patton was falling asleep on the display case and Roman was drooling on Dee. He snuck into the back and whipped up some coffees with excess amounts of sugar in them. He came back and brought Patton and Roman off to the side.

“Ok, so whatever you do,  _ do not tell your uncle under any circumstances _ , but here’s some coffee because the two of you look like you are about to collapse from exhaustion, and that is not cool. So drink up babes.” Remy said, handing them the drinks.

Patton took his hesitantly, but Roman grabbed his and started chugging it. “Ah, hot hot!”

“Of course it’s hot, I just made them!” 

“Remy, Remy, Remy!” Remus said, tugging on his shirt. “Can I have coffee.”

“Absolutely not.”

“What! But that’s not fair, Roman got one!”

“I fear for the day that you have coffee Remus. You’re feral enough without it.” Remy said.

“Ugh, but that’s no fun.”

“I’ll make you a hot chocolate alright? You can even go back and watch me, it’ll be great.”

Remy led Remus to the back where he could watch him make the hot chocolate. “So,” Remy said after starting the hot chocolate, “schools coming up, that’s exciting.”

Remus looked down and shuffled his feet around. “Not really.”   


Remy raised an eyebrow at that. “Why’s that?”

That was all Remus needed to start ranting. “Teachers are the absolute worst! They always act as if my ideas are horrible, just because they’re not wholesome or whatever. And they don’t like that I don’t do the problems the right way, or that I’m too gross. They don’t like me at all and it’s annoying!” 

“Wow, yikes there. That sucks. Hopefully the new school is at least somewhat less shitty.” Remy finished up making Remus the hot chocolate and handed it to him. 

“Here you go.” 

Remus wrapped his hands around the cup. “Thanks.”

“Look Remus, I’m not gonna lie to ya. School might be tough and borderline it can be kinda shitty. But me and Emile, we’re gonna be there for you. And besides, it sounds like there is nowhere to go but up.” Remy gave him a smile and put his arm around him.

Remus snuggled into him and smiled back. “Yeah, this year might not be as much horse shit.”   


“There we go!” Remy led him out where Remus joined the rest of his brothers who were sitting around one of the larger tables. Remy watched him go with a fond smile. Oh boy, was he getting attached to these kids. Even just watching them, he could feel his heart warm up a bit. He was in deep trouble, wasn’t he. He just hopes that these can stay safe. Being a kid is hard enough as is, nevermind having superpowers and hiding it from everyone. 

Patton was still drinking his coffee, but he was still having a hard time staying awake. Virgil laughed at him between bites of his pastry. “That’s what you get for sneaking out until dawn Pat!’

Patton pouted at him from his seat, but didn’t say anything.

“Why did you even sneak out like that?” Logan asked. “What could you possibly gain by such an action?”

Patton curled his fingers around his cup, trying to take comfort from the warmth of it. “It’s just that I thought I would give you guys a little break. I know everyone is stressed about school and stuff, so I just wanted to be able to help out some.”

“Whaaaaaaat?” Roman said. “I’m not nervous or anything, why would I be nervous? I’m cool, I’m chill. There is nothing going wrong with me there!”   


There was silence around the table until Dee spoke up. “Yeah, so that’s a lie.”   


Virgil sighed. “Alright, as the resident expert of being anxious, I’m gonna tell you guys that it’s really ok to be nervous about this whole thing. Am I nervous, of course I am! I’m freaking terrified of it. I would be freaked out if you guys weren't nervous about suddenly being shoved into a new school. But Patton,” Virgil turned to face him directly, “you aren’t responsible for fixing our problems. You  _ can’t _ fix all our problems, that’s not how any of this works.”

“But shouldn’t I try! If there is something, anything that I can do for you, shouldn’t I! You guys are too important to me not to do that!” Patton cried out.

“Pat,” Dee said seriously. “That’s all well and good, but you can’t do that to the point of hurting yourself and making your problems worse. And that  _ is _ what you are doing, doing work and staying up into late hours is a form of self-harm.”   


“I’m not hurting myself at all! I’m just helping you guys out, isn’t that what a big brother is supposed to do? It’s my job to help you.”

“Patton.” Dee said. “You deserve a childhood too.”

“I-I”

“Enough of the downer news!” Remus interrupted. Perhaps just wanting a change in conversation, or perhaps something more personal. “Come on, let’s talk about anything else already!”

“I am interested in talking about that villain.” Logan piped up. “Should we still be concerned with them? They have certainly given us substantial amounts of trouble before.”

“Less concerned about that,” Dee said. “And more concerned with how they just disappeared like that last time. A whole blackout just for this one guy to disappear? Seams unlikely to me.”   


“Also,” Roman said, “it just doesn’t seem like him to do that.”

“What do you mean?” Virgil asked.

“He’s not like you, tall, dark, and stormy. He likes being the center of attention, likes showing off exactly how cruel he can be, enjoys the thrill of putting lives at risk. For him to just vanish into the shadows? It’s just not right. Whatever type of person he is, he is not Batman.”

“So what then? Is there something else entirely? Someone else?”

“Well,” Patton said. “He’s always stealing something, right? What if the stuff that he takes isn’t actually for him?”

There was silence as they contemplated this new possibility. That there was someone that they haven't even seen working with this criminal. Eventually Logan spoke up, “I could see if I could find any cameras that did not lose power in the blackout that could give us a clue to what happened.”

“I think that’s a good start.” Virgil said. “But what do we do about him?”

“Whatever was taken is long gone. I think we shouldn’t focus our energy on searching desperately for him. It’s better for us to focus energy on other things.” Dee said.

The boys continued to talk about anything and everything that they could, as they finished up their treats. Remy eventually gathered them out and then they headed back towards their home.

* * *

Emile came home from the office, and smiled to see Remy hanging around the kids again. He was glad that the kids seem to like Remy, he would have been pretty heartbroken if the kids didn’t like Remy for whatever reason, so it warmed his heart to see them getting along so well. 

Remy saw him enter the apartment and pulled him aside into the kitchen. “So babe, how was work?”  
“It was fine, a bit tiring but there is nothing I would rather do than help people like this. And I think I made some improvements with one of my clients.”

“Oh, fancy, any deets?”

“Remy,” Emile delivered, deadpan. “You know that I legally cannot tell you anything about my clients. How were the kids?” 

“Well, they were a bit of a snore at first.”

“Remy.” Emile admonished.

“So I took them to the bakery, let them have some treats. And then I eavesdropped on the private conversation that they had.”

“ _ Remy _ .”

“Do you want the deets or not?”   


“No, Remy I don’t need to-”

“Shush,” Remy interumpeted. “I’m gonna tell you anyway. So they talked about their superhero lives in a very public space, those kids suck at hiding that they are superheroes, like this is comic book 101.”   


“I think I would know if these kids had any superpowers, Remy. I spend enough time with the kids to be able to figure that out.” Emile said.

“Yeah sure, keep telling yourself that. Anywho, they also talked a bit about school and stuff, they are real nervous about that. You should talk to at least Patton about that.”   


“Patton?” Emile asked. “Why Patton?”   


“Oh the dude is so freaking terrified about school, I can tell. But he’s totally in complete denial, kinda like you were about that new Powerpuff Girls series.”

“Why do you speak to me about the forbidden and cursed shows, Remy?”

Remy snickered, “Yeah, whatevs. But you should talk to Patton.” He checked out his phone to see the time. “Ok, probably should actually work sometime today.”

They walked over to the front door. “Talk to you soon?”

“Of course babe.” Remy said to Emile, before turning to face the kids. “Bye girls, TTYL.” Then he went out the door and the sound of a motorcycle speeding down the road was heard.

Emile hung out with the kids for a while after that. It wasn’t until later that night when he was able to talk to Patton. 

He knocked on the door to Patton and Virgil’s room. “Just a second!” Patton yelled. It was a good few moments later before Patton opened up the door.

“Oh hey, Uncle Emile! Do- do ya need anything?”   


“Actually Pat, I was wondering if I would be able to have a chat with you?”

“Oh, really? Um, now?” Patton looked nervously back towards the window as if he was waiting for something.

“If it isn’t too much trouble, Pat.”   


“Well, ok then.” Patton opened the door and then went to sit cross legged on his bed, by a bunch of Patton’s stuffed animals. 

Emile sat down on the edge of the bed. “So, I was wondering how you are doing with school coming up.” 

“Oh, just school?” Patton laughed. “Oh I was worried it would be something serious! No, I’m fine with school, I’m A-Ok.”   


“Patton.” Emile said seriously. “It is ok to not be alright with school. But it’s better if you could talk about it, even a little. I promise that I won’t tell a single soul.”

Patton grabbed one of his stuffed animals off his bed, a large green frog, and hugged it close. “I guess it can be a little bit stressful sometimes. It’s just that school makes me feel a little dumb sometimes. I try to be smart, I do! I try to study, and I try to pay attention in class and ask all of the right questions, but it never seems to work very well.”

“Well, Patton. First of all, there are multiple types of intelligence. Just because your type of intelligence doesn’t feature prominently in school, it doesn’t mean that you are in any shape dumb.”   


“There are?” Patton asked.

“Of course! Off the top of my head there is musical intelligence, interpersonal intelligence, intrapersonal intelligence, existential intelligence.” Emile ticked off his fingers as he listed the different types of intelligence. In no way would I ever consider you, under any circumstances to be dumb.“

“Really! That’s super cool! But you don’t really have to make a big deal out of any of this. My problems at school aren’t as big of a deal as the others. You should make sure they are doing alright.”

“Oh, I will, I wouldn’t worry about that. But your problems aren’t any more or less valid than your brothers, or anyone else's for that matter.”   


Patton gave his uncle a doubtful look, “Well, shouldn’t their problems be more important than mine? They are all so worried about starting school in a new place and Virgil already has anxiety to deal with. My problems aren’t nearly as pressing as theirs.”   


“Patton,  _ of course _ your issues are just as important as anyone else's. Your issues matter just as much as Virgil’s or Dee’s or Roman’s or anyone!  _ You _ are just as important. Helping others is a good thing, but you have got to make room to take care of yourself just as much.”

“I don’t know about that. I’m the older brother, shouldn’t I care more about their issues than my issues?”

Emile looked thoughtful for a moment to try to best explain this to Patton. “Have you ever seen the show Avatar the Last Airbender?”

“Yeah?”   


“So the overall goal of the show is for Aang to learn the four elements and defeat the Fire Lord. That is the main goal of that series. So according to your logic, most of the attention of the show would be placed there, and they wouldn’t take any time doing other things. Focusing on only what is most important.”

“I suppose.” Patton said hesitantly. 

“But that isn’t what happens in the show. They spend time not only dealing with helping the people they come across, but also there are several episodes dedicated to the character’s own problems, such as The Southern Airtemple, The Tales of Ba Sing Se, and Sokka’s Master, among many others. These episodes all focus on the issues that are completely separate from the main problem. If they are allowed to focus on them while they are out trying to save the world, you are allowed to make yourself the priority while still caring for your brothers.”

“But- I don’t really know how to take care of myself.”

“Well,” Emile said, “You don’t have to figure this out all at once Patton. Start with taking care of yourself just for tonight. Make sure you get a good night's sleep tonight, and go to school with a clear head. Things will seem less horrible with a clear mind. Alright?”

“Yeah, alright Uncle Emile.”

Emile wrapped Patton up in a hug. “You got this kiddo. I believe in you. You’re going to be amazing.”

Patton smiled brightly at his uncle and hugged him back tight. His uncle is right, he has to believe that. He can do this. He’s going to be alright.

* * *

The next morning, Emile pulled up to the school that the kids went to. “So this is it kids. Ready for your first day?”

The kids all looked around at each other, looking incredibly nervous. Virgil got out of the car first, “Well, I guess this is it.” 

The rest followed suit and got out of the car. “I’ll see you later!” Emile called. “I want to hear all about your days!” Emile then drove off into the distance.

All of the kids looked at each other. Somehow this seemed so much more scary than all the other bad guys that they have faced together. 

“Well,” Patton said. “Let’s go.” And then they all walked into the school together.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that this chapter is a good bit shorter than the others, but I hope you guys still enjoy it! This is the boys first day at school, and I hope you all like their little adventures!

Virgil walked into his classroom, hands in his pocket and eyes down. There’s no need to attract any more attention then he needs to. There is a chance that Virgil was somewhat more nervous than he let on. He finds a spot by the back of the classroom and slumps down in a seat.

He had arrived somewhat on the early side, Uncle Emile wanted to get to the school early enough for everyone to be able to find their classrooms. So it was a little while before the other students came into class, so he arrived all alone. Most others stayed away from him due to his creepy aura that he had carefully cultivated over the years. So it was a while until someone sat down next to him. They had slid quietly into the seat next to him. They were wearing a black denim vest, wore some combat boots, had their nails painted, and some makeup on as well. If there had to be someone who sits next to him, at least this kid seems pretty cool.

They sat down next to Virgil and fiddled with their necklace, fiddling nervously. They seemed very anxious as they sat there, looking at least as anxious as Virgil feels most of the time. Eventually they mumbled something, so quiet that Virgil couldn’t even make it out.

“Sorry, what?” Virgil asked.

They looked down at their hands and blushed, but then spoke just loud enough for Virgil to hear him this time. “I like your jacket.”

“Oh.” Virgil looked down at his jacket, which had a bunch of purple plaid patches stitched all over it, giving it a kinda Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas vibe.

“Thanks. Me and my brother made it.”

“Whoa you made that! Really? That’s amazing! It looks so cool!” They leaned forward in their seat to look at it closer. “It looks so well done, how did you make this?”

Virgil eyed this kid over a second before allowing himself to give into having a conversation. They seemed pretty cool anyways. “Well, my brother Dee did most of the stitching and stuff. I mainly just did the design for it, it’s no big deal,” he shrugged. “I like your make-up by the way.”

“Oh thanks, I uh… did it myself.”

“It looks cool.” Virgil said. “I wouldn’t mind getting some tips.”

“Oh, really? You think it looks that good? I can give a few pointers, I guess.” They were smiling and seemed to be warming up.

At this point, the teacher came up and introduced himself and started the role call. He went down the list with the kids saying here as their name popped up, with the occasional name correction. “Herb-”

At that the kid next to Virgil jumped up so suddenly, he felt the shadows starting to wrap around him protectively. “It’s not that, it’s uh, Elliott now.”

The teacher raised his eyebrow at Elliott, but then shrugged, made a mark on the list, and continued on. Elliott let out an audible sigh of relief and fell back into his seat.

“Virgil Picani?”

“Here,” Virgil said, then went back to the full time job of slumping in his seat. 

But Elliott sat up at that. “Picani? Like Dr. Picani?”

“Yeah? You know my Uncle?”

“Oh, he’s kinda my therapist. He’s pretty cool, I like him alot.” Elliott fidgeted nervously, “Don’t take this the wrong way or anything, but you seem pretty different from him.”

Virgil laughed at that. “Oh yeah, we're basically nothing alike. But he’s a good uncle.”

“I haven’t seen you around before, and I’ve been at the school my entire life. Did you just move here.”

Now it was Virgil’s turn to act skittish, as this was definitely something that he did not want to talk about with anyone, much less this kid he just met. “Yeah, um, me and my brothers just moved in with our uncle.”

Thankfully Elliott dropped it. “Oh that’s cool.” 

The teacher started to hand out papers to the class, so they couldn’t talk for too much longer. But so far, everything seemed to be going good for Virgil. He was afraid to admit it, but he was hopeful this year could be good for him. For someone who almost never interacts with anyone outside of his brothers, he had a not terrible conversation with someone. It was scary to hope, but now he was able to start hoping that this year would be a good one.

* * *

Dee slid into his desk, hoping to be the first one to arrive, but to his disappointment his teacher had already arrived. She was setting up some decorations in the room, and turned around to see Dee sitting in his seat. “Oh, it’s nice to meet you!” she said, coming over to him. “I didn’t expect to meet anyone this early. I’m Mrs. Dot, it’s great to meet you! Can I ask your name?”

Dee glared at her, annoyed at her unnecessary positivity. “Declan Picani. But I go by Dee.”

“It’s nice to meet you Dee.” She smiled at him, looking completely sincere. There was something fake about her, how could anyone possibly be this positive. The image of his uncle flashed before him, and he tried to push it down. “I hope that you enjoy the class! Are you looking forward to anything?”

“No,” Dee said, deadpan.

“Oh,” Mrs. Dot said, as if unsure what to say. “Well I am certain that we can find something! I believe that we can find something that you are interested in.” She then went back to decorating her room. She brought so much of her own stuff, Dee couldn’t help but wonder how much money she must have spent to decorate the room. 

Someone then walked into a room, but it wasn’t another student. It was a large man, about the same age as the teacher. 

“Larry!” Mrs. Dot said. “What are you doing here?”

“I just was stopping by real quick.” He leaned down and kissed her check, and she smiled wide. “Just finished setting up the theater room, and wanted to say good luck before you headed out.”

“Oh dear, you're the best. I’ll see you after school then?”

“See you then.” He then headed out after giving Ms. Dot one more kiss. She watched him go then went back to setting up the room.

Dee watched her set up her room from head to toe. What exactly was this lady playing at? There had to be something that she was hiding. There couldn’t possibly be anyone that could be this upbeat. He sunk into his desk and watched her carefully. She’ll slip up eventually. 

* * *

Remus went into his classroom, nervously clasping his bag. He never liked not being in the same class as Roman. They are separate people, they are interested in different things, but they just spent so much time around each other, it was hard when they are separated in times like this. He just felt so isolated and alone. 

Remus took a deep breath, and tried to remember what Remy said to him. “There’s nowhere to go but up. There’s nowhere to go but up,” he mumbled under his breath.

He walked into the classroom and sat down in a seat. It wasn’t too much longer before the teacher walked in. “Oh, hello. I didn’t expect anyone would be here this early. Who are you?”

“Remus Picani,” he mumbled.

“Oh one of Picani’s nephews.” she said. “This is your first day of class in the school, correct? Make sure to let me know if there is anything that I can do for you.”

Remus regarded her with a bit of suspicion. No teacher that he could remember had ever been that welcoming to him before. “Any question at all? I can ask anything?”

“Of course,” she answered. “There is no such thing as a dumb question.” 

Remus decided to test the waters a bit. “So, teach. Are we going to learn anything just _gross?_ Anything with all of the blood and guts and all of that good stuff. Any stories of any animals growing inside someone and come bursting out of them slowly and painfully?” To top it off, Remus gave her a sickeningly sweet smile. 

But to his surprise, the teacher actually took the time to consider the question. “Well, no stories that I can think of come to mind at the moment. But there is a section in the science portion where we will talk about anatomy, and that might be something that you could be interested in.”

“Really!” Remus leaned forward, his eyes shining. 

“I could research some facts, now that I know that one of my students is interested in the topic. Would you want me to do that?”

“Yes!” Remus shouted. “Please give me all the gross facts, please.”

His teacher smiled at him. “Of course. You should take a seat soon, class won’t be too much longer.”

Remus went back to his seat, almost vibrating with excitement. He was actually excited to be at school and to learn things. He couldn’t remember the last time that had happened.

* * *

As Patton went into his classroom, he couldn’t help but feel nervous. He hoped his brothers were alright, that everything was going fine with them. He couldn’t help but shake the idea that he should be around them. But he was also filled with the feeling that he wanted to be anywhere but school. 

He took a seat, and started to doodle some random doodles in his notebook, and he did this until class started. The teacher came in and smiled warmly. “Hello it’s nice to meet everyone. I’m glad that everyone could make it. I’d like to go over what we will be learning this year.” They passed out some paper that held the class plans for the year. Patton gripped it tightly. 

“We will be focusing on chemistry in science, and we will be starting a unit on algebra…” they talked through the schedule, going through what was planned for the year. Patton felt a fear grip his heart as his teacher kept talking. There was no way that Patton would be able to keep up with all of this. He didn’t want to disappoint Uncle Emile, but how could Patton possibly keep up with all of the other kids. 

The teacher started handing out books, and started on some basic lessons. Patton tried to be a good student and take notes, but he couldn’t help that his mind wandered from the topic to the random thoughts that were on his mind. When he realized that he stopped paying attention, he looked up and the teacher had already moved on. Patton sighed, and continued trying to write notes, but had no idea what was going on at all.

Eventually, the bell rang for lunch, but before he could get out his teacher said, “Patton? Can I talk to you before you head off real quick?”  
Patton lugged himself over to the teachers desk as his classmates headed out. He forced a smile onto his face. “Do you need something?”

“I just wanted to get to talk to you, with you being a new student,” they said. “Is there anything that I could help you understand? Was there anything that was confusing?” 

Patton’s first instinct was just to immediately say no, that everything was fine. But Patton hesitated. He knew that there was so much that he was not understanding, and was feeling incredibly overwhelmed. He just didn’t want to disappoint Uncle Emile, after all he had done for him and his brothers, and had taken the time to comfort him last night.

“...Patton?”

“Well, if I’m being honest,” he said hesitantly, “I was confused about a few things you taught.”

“Oh? Like what?”

“Um… everything?”

“Oh,” they said, shocked. “Well, I think that you should talk to your uncle first about this, but in that case it might be in your best interest to find a tutor.”

“A tutor? Oh, I don’t know…”

“I think this would be a good advantage to you Patton. It would help you be able to stay on track in class.” They grabbed a piece of paper from inside their desk and handed it to Patton. “This will give you a start on where to look. It’s all based on who you can afford, but if you feel out of place in class, I would recommend looking into this. Why don’t you take this home with you, and you can talk this over with your uncle?”

Patton grabbed the paper and stuffed it into his bag. “Thanks, I’m just gonna, head to lunch now. Um… thank you.” And then Patton went and headed off onto the lunchroom.

* * *

Logan carefully spread his stuff out on his desk. He stacked up his folders and notebooks, each carefully color coded to match each subject. He then took his folders and notebooks into his arms and opened his desk, neatly puting the notebooks inside. He put his planner on his desk, opened to today’s date. He organized his pens according to color and neatly placed his sharpened number two pencils. 

It wasn’t too much longer until the class started to fill up, as Logan took the time that he had by arriving early to explore the school. The seats close to him filled up more slowly, due to Logan wanting to sit at the front of the class. But eventually someone did grab the seat next to him. A girl who wore her brown hair up in a messy bun, was wearing a light blue skirt that twirled around her as she moved, and a cute, yet ruffled blouse. She plopped the huge pile of school supplies in her arms and slumped in her chair. She sort of pushed some of her things to the side, but didn’t seem to clear her desk any. She turned towards Logan and announced herself. 

“Hi!” she excitedly told him. “I’m Teal! I like your tie!”

“Oh,” Logan said, straightening his tie. “Thank you. My name is Logan.” He stuck his hand out to be shaken.

Teal looked at his hand and shook it overenthusiastically, smiling brightly. “I haven’t seen you around the school before, are you new?” 

“Yes, I just moved with my brothers and we are now living with our uncle.”

“You have brothers? How many?” Teal asked.

“I have five brothers, Dee, Ro-”

“Five!” she interrupted. “I wish that I had any siblings, everything is way too boring.”

“Well,” Logan said. “It certainly is never boring. But I can’t say I never want any peace and quiet.”

“So do you like school at all?” she asked. “Are you excited to be here?”

“Well, I do thoroughly enjoy learning.” he said. “But I can’t exactly say that I excel at the social aspect of school.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that!” Teal smiled at him. “I can help you with that!”

Logan blinked, startled. “You… you would do that for me?”

“Of course, you seem so cool! Why wouldn’t I want to hang around you?” 

Logan felt heat rise to his face. “Oh… um, thank you. You seem cool as well. So…” desperate to change the topic and stop flushing quite so much, “do you like being at school.”

“Oh yes!” she nodded enthusiastically. “ I love learning! There’s just so much that I want to know, so much world out there!”

At this, Logan found himself agreeing wholeheartedly. “Yes, I always wish to learn things as well. There are so many things in the world to discover and find, there’s so much we don’t know yet about the world and there is so much to learn!”

She smiled at Logan. “Exactly! Logan, I’m glad that I met you.”

Logan hesitantly sent a smile back at her. “I’m glad I met you as well, Teal.”

* * *

Roman spent his time before class wandering the school. The less time he was stuck in the classroom the better. Classrooms were always so boring and gloomy, why would he spend so long in somewhere so dull?

So he wandered around the school, looking at the gym, the cafeteria, the hallways, everywhere was surrounded by other kids. But Roman wanted just a couple minutes to himself, just to breathe right before he had to head off to class. So he kept wandering around until he found a large set of doors and opened them. 

Before him, there was a stage, filled with empty seats. His eyes widened and he ran up onto the stage. He closed his eyes and breathed in the air. And then he opened up his mouth and sang. 

He sang a song that he’s heard an untold number of times, even if it was only in the short time that he’d been living with Uncle Picani, he sang a song from one his favorite movies. As he sang _Go the Distance_ , and how he moved around the stage, he felt himself come alive. His imagination lit a flame, as he summoned whatever he pleased and they came alive before him. He didn’t feel as powerless as he felt just a few moments before, being in a new place and surrounded by all of those strangers. Instead, he felt as if his soul had been freed as if he found his purpose in the world. 

Roman knew he had to find a way to stay on the stage. He searched through the auditorium, but didn’t find a single clue to how he could get up on stage, but for real this time. He went dejected back to the doors, but on the outside of the door, he found a flier taped to it.

He pulled it from the door and looked over it. The flier said that they were holding auditions for the upcoming musical. He hugged the flier close to his heart and whispered something quietly.

“I am going to do this.”

* * *

The lunch bell rang out and Virgil and Elliott were heading towards the cafeteria. 

“Oh!” Elliott said excitedly, “You’ll be able to meet my boyfriend! He’s the best, I’m sure you like him, oh there he is!” and they wave someone over.

Someone came over, and as he got closer Virgil got the incredibly forbidding feeling that he knew this man from somewhere. 

“This is my boyfriend, Mitchell.” 

Then suddenly, with a wave of terror, Virgil recognized him. How could he ever have possibly not recognized him. How many times has he and his brothers fought him? This was the villain that has been terrorizing the city and his family.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so, so, so, so sorry that it took me so long to write another chapter. I did not mean to make you guys wait five months just for another chapter. To anyone still engaged with this story, thank you so so much. It really means the world to me. If you like the chapter, see if you can leave a comment! It really helps a ton! Also sorry that its a bit on the shorter side, hopefully you still will enjoy it!

Virgil stared forward in horror, completely petrified by what he was hearing. He was here? How could this horrible, cruel, villain possibly be here! Virgil and his brothers have seen him so many times, seen how heartless that he could truly be? And he was dating Elliott of all people? Did… did he misjudge Elliott? Were they just as cruel as Mitchell? What if-

“Uh.. Virgil, are you ok?” Elliott asked.

Virgil’s eyes darted between the two of them, trying to figure out who he could possibly trust and what he could say. “I just- I need to- I-”

“Virgil!” someone yelled from across the cafeteria. Virgil swerved around to see Dee running towards him. He grabbed his hand and started pulling him away. Once they were out of hearing range and a bit secluded from everyone else Dee hissed at Virgil, “What is going on. Why are you making friends with the enemy?”

Virgil hugged himself close and felt his breathing become shallow, “I… I don’t know! One second everything was fine and things were good still, because I was dumb enough to believe that a single thing in my life could possibly go right. Just one singular thing! But now everything is going wrong and it’s all my fault!” The shadows started to climb Virgil, as if they were trying to protect him from something. 

“Wait, shit I didn’t mean… um, everything is going to be just fine! We’ll figure it out, probably. Ugh, fuck I don’t know how to deal with this,” He looked around for something to help him, and luckily he was able to find it, or well him. “Patton!” Dee shouted and waved him down. 

Patton had been walking slowly towards the cafeteria, looking downwards. But when his name was called, he looked up with a bright smile and ran over to them. As he got close and saw the shadows starting to envelope Virgil, wrapping themselves ever so closer as Virgil went deeper and deeper into his panic.

Patton grabbed his hand, which got a sharp breath out of Virgil. “Virgil can you hear me?” Virgil didn’t say anything to that, so Patton gave his hand a squeeze and continued on. 

“Ok I’m going to do the breathing thing that Uncle Emile taught us. Breathe in 1-2-3-4, now hold 1-2-3-4-5-6-7, now out 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8.” Patton continued this pattern until Virgil joined and the shadows receded. Virgil slumped down to the ground and hugged himself close. Patton went to sit down to Virgil, and then looked up at Dee. “What happened?” Patton asked.

“Well, you know that maniac we’ve been chasing around the city?”   


“Yeah?”

“He’s in the cafeteria.” Dee said, pointing back towards the lunchroom. “Yeah, I think Virgil’s new friend introduced him, but really I don’t have that much of a clue what is going on, I just saw Virge and tried to get him away.” 

“Aw, Virgil! You made a new friend?” Patton gushed at Virgil. “I’m so proud of you!”

Virgil cocked an eyebrow at Patton, “Wow, that was so not the point of any of that. Are you really not gonna focus on the crazy supervillain that goes to school with us?”

“Oh right, that.” Patton thought for a moment, “Do you think that he knows who we are?”   


“Not sure.” Dee said. “But we should air on the side of caution. We should go back and try to act as normal as possible, avoid arousing suspicion.”

“I don’t know.” Patton said. “I don’t want Virgil to have to deal with that after just coming down from-”

“I’m  _ fine _ , Patton.” Virgil interrupted. “Stop babying me, let’s just get this over with.” He then stood up and then went into the cafeteria, quickly followed by Dee and Patton. Elliot and Mitchell were sitting down alone at a table, and the siblings headed over there and sat down.

As they sat down, Elliott perked up and smiled at Virgil. “Oh, hey, you came back!”   


Virgil nodded and huddled close to himself, clearly not very interested in talking. Dee looked over at him nervously, then carefully placed a smile on his face. “Sorry about that,” he said. “I just need my brother’s help for a second. I didn’t mean to cause any trouble.”   


“No, it’s fine, I get it.”

“Oh, um thanks.” Virgil sighed, extremely relieved. 

“Elliott, do we really have to hang around this guy? I don’t want to hang around someone so anxious. It’s not really my type.”   


“I-well I just thought,” Elliott stuttered out.

“Hey!” Patton shouted, “don’t talk about my brother like that!” his hands gripped the table, and it started to crack and splinter/

“Aw, does the little baby still need his big brother to protect him?” Mitchell taunted. “How weak, you can’t even stand up for yourself.”

Virgil stayed silent, but gritted his teeth, shadows started to animate reflexively around his feet. Looking at his brothers, Dee could tell that if nothing changed with Michell, his brothers were going to lose it and do something that they would all regret. But he couldn’t just act impulsively! 

Mitchell kept talking. “Really Ellie, I leave alone for just a little while and you go make friends with these people. Really. I can’t trust you to make decisions on your own can I! It’s just-” Mitchell felt a tap on his shoulder then turned in that direction. “Ugh what-”

A fist flew at his face and connected with his cheekbone. He slammed back against the table as Remus stood over them. “That’s what you get for hurting my brother you motherfu-”

“Did you seriously just punch me! You really think you can get away with that you little brat!” He stood up to his full height and leaned over Remus.

“Hmm, yeah probably,” Remus said, then kneed him in the crotch. He reeled back again, but before he could do anything a loud voice said, “A what  _ exactly _ do you boys think that you are doing?” 

A teacher was standing over them. Immediately Mitchell straightened up and smiled warmly at the teacher. “Sir, I was just trying to have a pleasant lunch with my partner, just making pleasant conversation with their new friend, when their brother started to attack me for no reason!” 

“He was doing no such thing!” Dee yelled. “He was bullying my brother!” Dee was absolutely seething here, and though no one besides Dee noticed, a few scales grew on his hand. He quickly hid it under the table.

“Oh, I would never do such a thing, I was just making some observations, and then suddenly I was being attacked!”   


The teacher grabbed Remus’ arm and started dragging him towards the principal's office. “Hey!” Patton yelled “don’t touch him!” Both Patton and Virgil were standing up, looking ready for a fight. 

“Guys,” Remus said, rolling his eyes. “I’m fine.” And then headed towards the principal's office, passing Roman and Logan, and some other girl they were talking to. As Remus passed them they looked up in alarm and ran towards him.

“Remus, what happened?” Logan asked, both of his siblings looking very concerned.

“It’s not like a big deal, I just punched a jackass! I’ll see you later!” and then he walked into the principal's office.

“I never understand him,” Logan mumbled to Roman.

“I only get him about fifty-percent of the time,” Roman whispered back.

* * *

When Emile first got the call from the school, he was incredibly worried, what in the world happened, were the kids okay? But when he listened to the call, he didn’t really know what to feel when he heard that Remus just attacked another kid like that. Why would he do such a thing? What could have possibly happened to cause him to do that. He knows that Remus could be a little… wild sometimes, but he never thought he would do anything like that.

These were the types of thoughts that were entering Emile’s head as he sped down the road to the school.Worries filled his mind and he didn’t know what to expect when he got there.

Once he parked, he practically ran up to the office, startling the secretary who was sitting there. “Hello, I’m here because I was called about my nephew? Remus Picani?”

“Hmm, let’s see,” the secretary said, looking through her files on her computer. Ah, there he is! You can go ahead into the principal’s office, he should be waiting there for you.

With a relieved smile and a quick thank you, Emile headed into the office. He saw Remus sitting in front of the principal, and the principal holding his head in one of his hands. When Emile entered the room he looked up and said, “Oh, Mr. Picani, thank you for joining us here. I wanted to discuss your nephew with you. He got in a fight with one of our star students here, and we do not tolerate fighting in any shape or form here at our school.”

Emile placed a hand on Remus’ shoulder and asked gently, “Remus, what happened?”

Suddenly Remus blushed and turned away from him, “He deserved it.”   


Emile knitted his eyebrows in concern, but turned his attention to the principal, “Where is this other kid, why isn’t he here?” 

“We didn’t see a reason for him to be here, he was clearly the victim in this case, and there is no reason to disrupt his school day,” he said evenly, as if this was the clearest statement in the world.

“But Remus’ education doesn’t count? Maybe what Remus did was wrong, but you could listen to him before deciding who is right and who is wrong?” Picani responded incredulously.

“Look, Mr. Picani, there is no reason for that. I just want it made clear that this is not allowed within our school.”

Emile closed his eyes and sighed through his nose. He wasn’t getting anywhere like this. “Just, what is his punishment for the fight?”

The principal smiled to himself and straightened his papers, “Since Remus is new here, I’m only going to make him take a weekend detention. But if this happens again, he’s going to face a much worse punishment.”   


“Fine,” Emile said, “But I’m taking him home for the day, is that alright.”

“Yeah fine, fine.”   


“But,” he said standing up. “This isn’t over just yet. I’m not going to let you treat these kids like this. I know what abuse of power looks when I see it. You’ll be hearing from me at a later time.” He took Remus’ hand, and led him out the door, “Let’s head out, Remus.”

As they walked out to the car, Remus was completely stunned. For his uncle to stand up for him like that, no one has ever done that for him before! Very rarely was Remus stunned into silence, but seeing his uncle just go to town on the principal shocked him immensely. 

But silence never lasted very long with Remus, he just can’t stand it. He tapped his hands restlessly against his thighs. He interrupted the silence by asking, “Why did you stick up for me?”

Emile blinked a couple times, shocked. “What do you mean?” He asked, glancing at a hunched over Remus.

“Well, it’s not like you get anything out of it. I just can't figure out why you would put your neck out there for me. There has to be a reason, right?”

“Of course there is a reason, I care about you Remus! I care about you and all your brothers so much, of course I wanted to help you.”

“Yeah, right.” Remus mumbled, “Like any adult has ever wanted to help me before.”

Emile looked at him, concerned, before he realized he was starting to drift, and jerked his eyes back to the road. He sighed tightly through his nose. “Let’s wait until we get back home to have a conversation about this. We are going to talk about it, but I think it’s better if we wait until we can both calm down a little and think about this calmly.”

Soon Emile pulled into his parking spot at the apartment complex, and then they headed inside, Emile fairly confidently leading the way, as Remus followed pretty nervously behind him. Emile didn’t immediately stop and sit down like Remus thought that he would. Instead he got down some marshmallows and some instant hot chocolate packets. “Don’t tell Remy about this, they would be mad enough about me even having instant hot chocolate.” He made the hot chocolate, and then grabbed some of his softest blankets and gave one to Remus. It wasn’t until they had both sat down and taken a drink did Emile start to speak. 

“So, why don’t we start at the beginning.” Emile said, giving a smile to Remus.

Remus hesitated for a second, clearly not trusting this situation, but did relent, “Well, I went to the cafeteria for lunch, and I saw this one butt face who was really laying into Virgil, for some reason. Like really laying into him, making fun of him, his anxiety. I couldn’t just let that keep happening like that! He’s my brother, I can’t just let that happen!”  
“So… you punched him.”  
“Yeah, he was being an asshole.”

“I understand that. I don’t blame you for sticking up for your brother. Actually, I’m proud of you.”

Remus reeled back at this. “You’re what now? That doesn’t even make any sense!”   


“Remus I am not going to be mad at you for sticking up for your brothers. For sticking up for your family, I want you to know that I am incredibly proud of you.” Then Emile smiled at him, trying to comfort him.”

“But… I punched a kid.”   


“Yes, while I am glad that you protected Virgil like that, I do want you to realize that there are better ways of doing so. May I ask you why you decided to punch him?”   


“His face looked punchable.” 

“Punchable.” He sighed. “Remus, we need to be able to work on the way in which you respond to things.” Emile glanced at Remus, who was sitting with his hands wrapped around the hot chocolate. His nephew just looked so small in the moment, Emile just couldn’t push him any farther today. “But, that can wait for another day. You had a bit of a hard first day of school. You didn’t have a chance to have lunch did you?”

“No, I didn’t really get a chance to. I saw Virge getting picked on, and then I was in the Principal's Buttface outfit.”

“I really should tell you not to call him that, but he was being a bit of a buttface.” Remus giggled at his Uncle saying buttface. “I could make you some mac ‘n’ cheese, if you want.”

“Yeah!” Remus shouted, sitting up in his chair.”Can we add food dye to make it green?”

“Yeah sure, why not? It’s not gonna harm anyone. It’ll be like having Nickelodeon Slime!” 

* * *

A few hours later, Emile pulled up to pick up the rest of the nephews. They were all huddled together, whispering amongst themselves. They all seemed to be on edge, especially Virgil. He seemed closed off, even to his brothers. His hands were stuffed angrily in his pocket, looking down, hunched over, and had a scowl on his face. Everything about his posture and demeanor simply portrayed that he desperately just wanted to be left alone.

Emile layed down on his horn, and waved enthusiastically at the kids. “Hey! Boys, I’m here, ready to pick you up anytime now! Over here!” They all blushed, incredibly embarrassed in their uncle, except for Patton, who simply waved back at him. They all loaded into his minivan, and Emile headed off the road.

The air in the car was stifled, none of the boys saying anything, just sending looks to each other nervously. Emile put on the Steven Universe soundtrack on, to help everyone calm down. Nothing happened instantly but Emile did notice that some stiff shoulders did relax a bit on the way home, and Logan seemed to enjoy Stronger Than You.

It wasn’t too long until they arrived home, and opened the door to Remus sitting at the kitchen table, writing in his notebook where he puts all of his ideas. He looked up when the door opened. “Oh hey guys. What’s up?” 

Everyone stood completely still for the moment, just staring at him. “Uh, Remus. Aren’t you, oh I don’t know, upset at all?”

“Nah, it’s all good. Punched that buttface in the face, so that felt good, had some green mac ‘n’ cheese, I’m doing pretty good.”

“You’re still grounded Remus.” Emile said. “Even if I am proud of you for helping Virgil, you still shouldn’t get into fights.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Remus said, waving his hands. “Whatever.”   


“Um, Remus?” Dee said, purposely glancing at their uncle. “Can we talk?”   


“Yeah sure, what’s up?”

Dee just took a deep breath, and closed his eyes out of exasperation. But Emile just chuckled and started to head out. “Ok, ok I get the picture. I’ll be in my office if you need anything.”

As soon as they heard the door to the office close, Virgil rounded on Remus. “Why would you do that! There was no reason to do that!”   


“Uh, what are you talking about bro? He was hurting you! You almost had a panic attack, it was obvious!”   


“I would’ve been fine!” Virgil yelled back.”I’m not seem weak, pathetic thing you all need to babysit all the time! Just because I have anxiety doesn’t mean that I can do anything!”

“Oh, I’m  _ so sorry _ Virgil! How dare that I actually try to care about you! Next time you’re in trouble, I’ll just sit there and let you die, how about that?”

Virgil was about to respond before Logan interrupted them. “Oh, would you  _ please _ both shut up for half a second. Virgil, we think that you are incredibly strong. Remus trying to help you in his own dumb way doesn’t mean that he doesn’t think you can do things. Besides if Remus didn’t punch him, it was most likely only a matter of time before Patton would have.”

Virgil rolled his eyes. “Patton wasn’t going to punch Mitchel.” He glanced at Patton who was looking down at the ground. “You weren't going to punch him right?”  
“Well, um, I didn’t punch him! So that’s good!” Patton said nervously.

“Patton.” 

“What? He was being a poo-poo head!”   


Virgil covered his face in his hands. “How am I the only one here with self-control?

Roman threw his arm around Virgil’s shoulder. “Oh, panic-at-the-everywhere, don’t pretend you wouldn’t unleash the forces of darkness to help us.”   


“Ugh fine, whatever! I’m as big of an idiot as the rest of you!” The brothers laughed at his outburst, gently teasing him.

“Not that this isn’t fascinating, but this isn’t what I wanted to actually talk about? Are we not going to talk about that this Mitchell being the same villain we’ve been fighting? That seems kinda important.” Dee said. 

“Wait what?” Remus said. “Since when?”

“Could you not tell?” Logan asked, “It’s not like he has ever worn a mask.”   


“I didn’t really look at his face much, just kinda punched his face.”

Dee sighed deeply, exasperated at Remus. “What are you going to do about this? We can’t just do nothing about this?”   


“Why not?” Virgil asked. “Doing something could tip him off. We don’t want to mess anything up.”

“Yeah, we don’t want to do anything drastic like punching him in the face,” Roman said sarcastically. “That would be a disaster.”   


“Roman is right.” Logan said.

“He is?” Virgil exclaimed.

“I am?” Roman asked.

“Yes, tensions should already be high between us and him. We should take action as soon as we can, before something else will unfold. It would be only a matter of time before something is revealed.”   


“Sorry,” mumbled Remus.

“Oh Remus, it’s not your fault.” Patton said. “I almost punched him too!”   


“Pat,” growled Virgil. “Not. Helping.”

“So what are we going to do? One of you has to have a plan, right?” Roman said, gesturing to Logan and Dee. 

“I think we should follow him. One day after school, we follow him. Find out where he is getting all of this tech.”

“Because,” Logan said with a sly grin sliding onto his face, “We find him, we can find who he is working for.” 


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey I’m back! I really hope everyone likes this chapter! I’m starting to get into some plot stuff but I hope you guys will still stick around and read it! Thank you guys so so so much for all of your support! I hope you enjoy it! Please comment if you enjoyed it! They motivate me so much and I love every one!

Virgil nervously chewed his fingernail on the way to his locker. He wasn’t so sure about this plan they were trying. Yeah, it seemed like a good idea at the time, they way they all explained it made so much sense, but now it seemed like a terrible idea. Why would he even agree to this stupid plan in the first place? There was so much that could go wrong! They didn’t know what they were up against, and one of his brothers could get hurt, and then what could they do! They would be trapped and it would all be Virgil’s fault!

“Hey, Virge, are you alright?” Elliott’s voice broke him out of his spiraling thoughts. Despite everything with Mitchell, he and Elliott somehow managed to remain close friends. They had apologized so fiercely for everything that they’re boyfriend did, and it didn’t exactly take a genius to realize that they were in a pretty toxic relationship. He couldn’t imagine abandoning them like that. Especially considering everything he knows about Mitchell.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just worried about something,” he said.

Elliott looked at him concernedly. “Do you want to talk about it? I’m here if you want to talk about it.” They smiled warmly at him, open and non-judgemental.

Virgil couldn’t even imagine how that conversation would even go. Oh, by the way me and my brothers are stalking your boyfriend because he is evil and we want to be able to take him down. Yeah that would end well. “No, I think I got it covered. But thanks.”

Elliott shrugged and moved on. “Do you have any plans for this weekend?” they asked. “Mitchell said he’d be busy and I really don’t want to spend the week around my brother.”

“I think so? I’ll have to check with my uncle to make sure he doesn’t have any plans, but it should be fine. We could probably hang at my place.”

“Ok cool, see you then.” They arrived in front of the school and they could see a young woman waving at them. “Oh that’s my sister! Shouldn’t your uncle be here by now?”

 _Well_ , Virgil thought, _me and my brothers lied and said that we're staying behind so we can stalk your ex, which is going to completely break him when he finds out._ But out loud he said, “O-Oh I’m sure he’ll be here, probably just running late or whatever.” He smiled nervously at them. God he stinks at lying.

Elliot gave him a bit of a disbelieving look but they headed off anyway, waving goodbye out their window. Virgil rubbed a hand over his face. God, he was so stressed. It was a good idea, but it was just so risky. He walked to where they agreed to meet up, a little corner on the backside of the school, where they should be completely out of site of anyone outside or anyone inside who happened to open a window. 

He was the last one to arrive and he and Patton flew everybody to the roof, where they all got changed. There was an unbearable silence as they got ready, and eventually Virgil just couldn’t take it anymore. “Are we sure this is a good idea? I mean, we don’t even know what we are heading into. There’s just too much that we don’t know. Is this really worth it?”

“It’s not like we are getting anywhere,” Dee said, slipping on his gloves. “We won’t get any results unless we cut off the head.” 

“Besides,” Patton said, putting a comforting hand on Virgil’s shoulder, “we will all be together we’ll protect each other, like we always have.”

Virgil smiled back up at Patton, “Yeah, yeah, ok. Let’s go then.”

And with that, they leapt up to follow Mitchell through the streets.

They followed him through the streets, being covered by Virgil’s shadow powers. They most likely didn’t need to be that careful. Mitchell clearly didn’t have a single clue that he was being followed, and walked boldly up to what looked like an abandoned building. He seemed to put his hand on some sort of panel, and then walked in the building. 

“In there?” Roman exclaimed, “I was hoping for something more dramatic, like a dark tower, or a staircase to the depths of the earth, or, oh maybe a portal into another place!”

“It is weird,” Logan mumbled. “With how high tech all of the equipment we’ve seen, I would expect at the very least a bigger building to support a lab of some sort.”

“Ugh, what are we doing, let’s just go already-”

“Remus, let's attempt to be cautious at least.” Patton looked over at Logan.

“Do you think you can figure out whatever technology let him in?”  
Logan nodded. “I’m sure of it.”

“Ok, you and Dee go over and check it out. Dee, keep an eye out for anything over there.”

He nodded, and he transformed into a small snake and wrapped himself around Logan’s arm. Logan walked over there and took a look at the technology. It was hidden fairly well into the building, making it hard to see the panel unless someone knew what to look for. Logan plugged it into his gauntlet on his arm, and a few seconds later, the door clicked open. 

After Logan gave a thumbs up to the group, they all walked inside. Inside was rather inconspicuous, just a rather worn down looking building, with a stained carpet and a desk under piles of dust. The only thing that stuck out was an elevator door, which seemed strange, considering it was a one-story building. They walked over to the elevator, inspecting it. Well, that was the plan until Remus started reaching towards the elevator buttons. 

Dee quickly snatched his wrist out of the air. “What do you think you're doing.”

“Getting in the elevator?” 

“Remus,” Logan said, “they probably have cameras in the elevator. This is just a sneaking mission.”

“What’s the point of it? We’re just going to beat up the bad guy, right?”

“No!” Virgil practically growled at him. “We are going to be as careful as possible and we are going to focus on making it back alive, got it?”

Remus rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. He must have recognized just how anxious Virgil was about the whole scene, so he did mumble, “Fine, but it won’t be any fun.”

Patton opened up the doors, and then they peered down the elevator shaft.

“Wow.” Roman eventually said, “That goes much deeper than I thought it would.” They couldn’t even see how far it went down, even with Patton’s power giving light.

“Well,” Roman said. “Into the unknown?” He conjured a rope ladder for the ones who can’t fly and they started heading down the elevator shaft. 

Eventually they reached down to where the elevator had stopped. Patton opened the door just above the elevator and everyone piled through. What they saw through the door shocked them all.

What they first noticed was how clean the whole room was. It was meticulously clean, with white walls, and with not a spec of dirt to be found. It was so bright it almost hurt their eyes, coming from the dark elevator shaft. Virgil in particular winced at the brightness, and pulled down his hood to cover his eyes better.

The second thing that they noticed was that nearly every inch of counter space was filled with experiments. Everywhere they looked, it seemed like there was some kind of experiment happening. Slime in various glass containers moved around as if they had a mind of their own, there seemed to be animals combined together in strange,unnatural ways. There was a strange sense of unease that swept through the group. 

“It’s not too late for us to just… go.” Virgil said. “We can just like, leave and not deal with any of this.” Despite trying to sound casual, his eyes flickered around and looked incredibly pale, betraying just how nervous he was. 

“We should push on,” Roman said. “We made it this far already. They’ll probably figure out that we were here if we left. We can’t just turn tail.”

“Well some of us don’t want to become part of some evil experiment, Roman!” Virgil hissed at him.

“Oh,” Patton said. “I’m sure it’s not all bad.” He looked over at a cage at a soft looking rabbit. As soon as he did that the bunny reared at him with razor sharp teeth and started chewing at the bars of his cage. Patton reeled backwards, “Alright, maybe not.”

“We should split up,” Dee said. “We don’t have a map of the place or anything, so it would be good if we were able to cover more ground.”

“Haven’t you watched any Scooby-Doo with Uncle Emile at all?” Roman raised his eyebrows at him. “If we split up, we will die.”

Dee rolled his eyes. “I’m pretty sure the world doesn’t actually function with cartoon logic. Don’t be so dramatic.”

“What, are you scared, bro-bro?” Remus teased.

“If we are going to split up, let’s hurry up and do it already. The longer we stay here the longer we have to get caught.” Logan said. “Someone should stay on this level to try to figure out what is going on here.”

“Ha!” Remus leaned in close to his little brother, “you just want to look at the freaky experiments.”

“It’s not like the rest of you idiots could figure out anything here.”

“Ok, ok,” Patton said. “We are not going to start a fight. Logan will continue to investigate at this level. Does anyone want to stay down here with him?”

It was completely silent. No one else seemed willing to stay in such a creepy area. Everyone else seemed interested in getting out of this lab. Mostly because it creeped them all out, but Remus just looked bored. After a while Dee volunteered. “I could stay, make sure Logan doesn’t get killed while he’s all nerded out.”

“Ok, thanks Dee.” Patton sighed, relieved. “The rest of us will go down a level lower. We’ll see if we can find who is behind all of this.” The rest of them headed to the stairwell as Logan and Dee stayed behind.

Logan and Dee wandered around for a while. Dee wasn’t quite sure what Logan was looking for, but he would periodically stop and make some notes in his holograms. Dee followed kind of lazily behind him until he spotted something that caught his attention. It was a fairly small snake, with two heads. It stared straight at Dee. 

Logan looked back and saw that there Dee wasn’t walking behind him. He saw him at the snake cage and came over. “Dee? What are you doing?”

“They’re scared,” he said, not looking away from the snake.

“How do you know that? Can you speak with snakes? Has this ever happened before?” Logan insistently asked.

“No it’s nothing like that, I can just... tell.”

“That is infuriatingly vague.”

“Would it be possible to get them out?” Dee looked up at Logan.

“Why?” Logan asked. “That’s an unnecessary risk that we shouldn’t take. What if it is chipped and could let us be tracked down. There is no reason to do something so unnecessary and dangerous.”

Dee stood up and glared at him. “I am not leaving them. They are terrified and trapped and alone. You cannot make me leave them.”

Logan looked to the sky, exasperated. He scanned the cage quickly, while mumbling something about nonsensical emotions. “I don’t see any traps in there. But I’m not hiding a snake from our uncle.”

Dee smiled brightly and opened the cage. It wrapped around Dee’s wrist, and squeezed. Not very tight, just enough for Dee to be able to sense how grateful it was. Logan went back to looking at the experiment that he was looking at. It was some sort of sludge moving as if it had a mind of its own. It moved at weird angles, seemingly ignoring gravity entirely. It would sometimes seem to change states, and become sharp and jagged. Logan lifted the lid off, and touched the experiment. When he touched it, it was soft and his finger went through it. He waited until it went hard and touched it again. He felt a sharp pain and when he pulled out his finger it was bleeding.

Logan just had time to start to figure out what this could possibly mean, when he felt a painful strike to the head. He just was able to hear Dee shout for him before everything went black. 

Dee stared in horror at this shape that knocked Logan unconscious. It didn’t even seem to have a form, just a floating shape of some pink liquid. Scales grew all over his body and his fingers sharpened into talons. He launched himself at the figure, but none of his attacks were capable of landing, they all just moved smoothly right through. He tried to bite the figure, his fangs laced with venom, but suddenly the liquid was smothering him completely and he couldn’t take a breath. In a few moments, Dee slumped to the floor, unconscious. 

* * *

Patton, Virgil, Roman and Remus, all continued down the stairs. There seemed to be two more levels, meaning the group should probably split off again. Patton and Roman continued downwards, while Virgil and Remus went into the next door. 

As Virgil slowly entered the room, his eyes went wide as he absorbed what was inside. Large computer monitors lit up the room, and there were large tables with what looked like maps scattered everywhere. Remus walked up to the table.

“Remus, get back here, it could be trapped! Remus!” Virgil hissed as Remus strolled confidently forward. 

Remus rolled his eyes. “It’s just a dumb conference room, Panic Attack. Do you really think we’re gonna find anything interesting by standing in the doorway?”

Virgil reluctantly yet nervously walked over as Remus mumbled under his breath, “At least if we get blown up it’ll be less boring.”

Virgil ignored him and picked up a piece of paper. It wasn’t quite a map, more of a blueprint of a very high security building. He picked up another blueprint at random, and it was the same type of blueprint of another high security building, and again and again. “What is this supposed to mean? What is Mitchell planning?”

Remus cast a glance at all of this, “Yeah I don’t really think that this is Mitchell. He’s way too stupid to plan anything.”

“Yeah that’s fair. But whoever is in charge here… they’re planning something huge. Some kind of attack-” Virgil was immediately cut off as a flood of a pink liquid knocked him off his feet and threw him into a wall. 

“Finally!” Remus yelled. “Some action!” And with that a glowing green mace appeared in his hands, and he charged forward with a battlecry. He thrust his mace through his head, but it didn’t connect to anything just like in the battle with Janus and Logan. Remus growled and created a twin set of knives and tried stabbing him, but that didn’t work either and Remus let out a scream in frustration. As soon as Remus did, one of the creature’s fist flew right at Remus. He closed his eyes, but the blow did not hit. 

Looking at the arm, it was easy to see why. It was wrapped up by black shadow. Following the path of that shadow. Remus could see Virgil, still on the ground, but reaching out with his powers to stop his brother from being hurt.

Remus smiled, and then let his fist fly. He was able to finally connect with them, and the creature reeled backwards. He was finally able to get a hit.

But then the creature’s face snapped back up towards Remus. His hand morphed into a hammer and thumped Remus on the head. His body crumpled to the floor. They walked then to where Virgil was still waiting on the floor. Virgil looked up just in time to see a foot fly in his face. And then he was out.

* * *

Roman and Patton continued farther down the chamber, when they eventually arrived at the very bottom. When they reached what looked like the very end of the base, they were looking at a huge set of windows and an enormous glass door. Looking inside, they were once again floored by just how white a clean everything looked. Even for Patton, who’s powers already gave off a bright light, it was so alarmingly bright it was hard for him to see through the window and he had to squint just for his eyes to be able to adjust.

When their eyes finally adjusted the first thing that they were able to recognize was Mitchell, sitting in his full supervillain outfit, laying across the chair looking completely nonchalant. They could also see someone sitting at a desk, which looked strangely familiar to them. Not they were able to recognize him in any way, but something about this man reminded them of someone else that they knew. They were impeccably dressed in whites and blacks, and they glared down at Mitchell. 

“Mitchell,” he said standing up. “I… am so very disappointed in you. I had such high hopes for you. But you haven’t seemed to do enough to further our goals.”

He walked in front of Mitchell and looked down condescendly, “What am I going to do with you.”

Mitchell rolled his eyes, “Dice, would you chill out? I’ve broken into plenty of places for you, got you a bunch of stuff you needed. What else would you need.”

“For one, I would have preferred that you had enough sense to have enough discretion not to engage with a bunch of superpowered brats. But I do suppose that you have a point. Soon we will be able to rid the world of those who are unworthy of it.”

“Whatever, boss man.” At this point Roman looked up and saw that Patton’s eyes were glowing and he was physically shaking with rage. Roman thought fast and hugged him close. “We need the others Pat, please just wait,” he whispered desperately. Patton’s eye’s dimmed and he nodded, but he still looked absolutely pissed at everything this man was saying.

“I wouldn’t expect you to be able to understand what I am doing here. I am going to save this world from the scum of the Earth. Get rid of the worst of humanity, who do nothing but make the world more insufferable!” He was nearly yelling at this point, but then took a deep breath and gave a bone-chilling smile. “But that I supposed that will all be fixed in just a moment. Magenta?”

As soon as he said that, the elevator dinged and swung open. This pink creature stood in the doorway, but that’s not what gained the alarm of Roman and Patton. At this creature’s feet, laid their family, beaten and bruised. Patton’s breath caught as he saw the most important people in the world to him hurt. 

“Ah thank you, Magenta.” Dice said. “Please place them over in the corner, I will deal with them.” The creature did and dropped their brothers on the floor. Dice walked over to them. “Ah, it’s such a shame that they have decided to work against us. They could be such a valuable source if not for their flaws.” He laid a hand on Dee’s scaled face. “Like this one here, he has so much potential to unleash, but without proper guidance, he’ll always stay so flawed and deformed like this.” He sighed, as if disappointed. “Oh well. Magenta, dispose of them.” Magenta’s arm transformed into a razor sharp blade and he moved towards the brothers.

At the same time, Patton lost it.

He screamed and leapt through the window, shattered glass flying around him. He continued to scream as he fired off his energy blasts at Magenta. Unlike the other attacks against them, these actually seemed to land and disrupt him. During this Roman ran to his family. He shocked Virgil’s arm desperately trying to wake him up. He groaned a little, but continued to be unresponsive. 

“Don’t you dare hurt them!” Patton yelled. “Don’t you dare lay a single finger- AHHHHHHHHH!” His body seized as from behind as Mitchell, forgotten by Patton and Roman, stood up and sent thousands upon thousands of volts of electricity through this body. He collapsed to the ground, smoking. The sound of his brother hitting the floor did make Virgil bring up his head. He reached up and grabbed Patton’s hand, squeezing tight.

Patton sat up. “You are not going to win.” He managed to spit out.

“Oh, then perhaps then you could enlighten me.” Dice said, kneeling down to Patton’s level. “The only ones who are even aware of anything are a bunch of brats who are about to disappear from this world. Just how exactly am I going to be stopped?”

“Because there will always be people willing to do the right thing. The world isn’t as cruel as you believe. There is kindness everywhere, you are just too cruel to see it.”

“We’ll just have to see won’t we. Magenta?”

Virgil realized just what was going to happen as Magenta walked up to Patton. Tears pricked at his eyes and his breath got shallow as he got close. They wrapped a hand around Patton’s and then he… transformed.

He melted down completely into shadow, enveloping the brothers. For Roman and Patton, who were still conscious, it felt as if all their senses had left them. They couldn’t see, hear, or feel anything. Just after Virgil’s shadow had enveloped the entire family, they all vanished. Not a single trace of them was left in the room other than the shattered glass laying on the floor. 

* * *

They reappeared several blocks away from the building. After escaping from the shadow they all sat up and gasped, the others having been woken up from the experience. Virgil desperately grabs his arms and then his face, making sure he was back with his body. 

Logan sat up excitedly, “How long did you know that you could do that, Virgil? I’ve never seen you do anything like that before?”

“I-I don’t know, I’ve n-never done anything like that before!” Virgil stammered out.

“We’ll have to study, see if we can replicate it-”

“What, no!” Virgil interjected, horrified. “I’m never going to do that again, that was terrible!”

Logan’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion, “But think of all of the different possibilities. Why wouldn’t you want-”

“Guys.” Dee interrupted, trying to support Patton’s weight. “Patton’s injured. We need to go home now.”

“No,” Patton mumbled. “We should get back, we need to stop…”

“Pat, even I think that’s a bad idea,” Roman said. “We all almost died. I’m all for fighting the good fight. But if we can’t do this. Not yet.”

“But-”

“Patton, you can barely stand.” Dee said.

Patton gave a dejected sigh, but relented. “Fine, let’s go home.” 

They started their walk home in silence, just not having the energy to continue to talk to each other after such a horrible day. Due to how utterly exhausted they all were, there were a few things that they neglected to notice. They didn’t notice that they weren’t being careful to avoid attention, they didn’t notice quite how late and dark it had gotten, or the fact it looked like no one had come home for quite a while. It didn’t cross anyone’s mind to really wonder where their Uncle had gotten off to. That is, until the door handle turned and in walked an exhausted looking Emile Picani.

When he looked up, the keys to the apartment door dropped out of his hand. Not only because this was the first time seeing his nephews all day since dropping them off at school, but also because he was staring at the kids still decked out in their superhero outfits. Everything Remy said that Emile brushed came flying to the forefront of his mind. 

All that he could think was that his kids had superpowers.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Comments do truly help so leave those if you are able!


End file.
